Kerry Shearer, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, believes her young daughter Isla suffers from a condition called trichotillomania – an impulse control disorder where the sufferer feels compelled to yank out their own hair.

According to Kerry, it all started when Isla was an infant. She would wrap her hair around her finger and suck her thumb.

At first, Kerry and her husband, Gavin, 35, weren’t concerned, thinking the habit was ‘cute’. But after Kerry uploaded a video of Isla at around a year old to Facebook, a friend commented saying it looked as though she was eating her own locks.

When the situation worsened to the point Isla began actually pulling locks of her hair out, Kerry and Gavin made the decision to shave her head entirely, in hopes of combating the disorder.

(Picture: PA Real Life)

Kerry had tried everything, from coating Isla’s hair in Vaseline so that it is too greasy to pull at, to encouraging her to play with a blanket or dummy instead – but nothing worked. And so, they believed shaving the hair to be their final option.

Despite having no hair to pull, Kerry says it hasn’t reduced Isla’s compulsions. She explained: ‘Once her hair was no longer there, she started taking mine, or pulling it out of hairbrushes.

‘I’ve tried everything to stop her, but nothing seems to work. I know trichotillomania is often linked to anxiety, but Isla is the happiest child going, so I don’t know what’s causing it.’

While health visitors agree that it is highly possible that Isla has trichotillomania, despite her symptoms, doctors have not made a formal diagnosis, in hopes that it could just be a phase that she will eventually grow out of.

But Kerry doesn’t want to take any chances.

(Picture: PA Real Life)

She said: ‘I’m hoping to see a specialist paediatrician. Even if Isla does grow out of it, I know it’s linked to stress, so it could come back as she grows up.

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‘I want there to be a diagnosis on record, so that help is easily available in later life, if she needs it.’

Since having her head shaved, Isla’s hair has started to grow back on the left side of her head – though she’s been left with a bald patch spanning half of her right.

Though shaving Isla’s head was done out of love, Kerry says that she often receives disapproving looks from strangers who’ve even approached her to ask her what she’s done to her daughter’s hair when out in public.

‘People think I’ve given her a dodgy haircut, as it looks almost alopecia-like,’ said Kerry.

‘It still looks shaved. There’s nothing on one side for her to pull. I don’t want to distress her, or make her feel bad, so I do sometimes give her some of my hair to play with. I know I shouldn’t, but at least that gives her own hair a chance to grow back.’

(Picture: PA Real Life)

Luckily, Kerry has not been on her own as she watched her daughter’s disorder worsen. She’s been receiving lots of support through Facebook from other mothers who are experiencing similar problems with their own children – and she’s even taken to the social media site to share her story in order to raise awareness of her daughter’s condition.

She explained: ‘I would love to see more people becoming aware of trichotillomania, as it happens to millions of people around the world.